Bob Cousy

[Kenneth Mattina <mattinak@teleport.com>]

Hi Everyone,

Here's a nifty article on The Cooz.  I hadn't seen it posted so I thought
you might enjoy it.

Ken

                            	  	   	           	  	 
>  	  	              Cousy at 70 is still one for the ages        By Bob
>Ryan, Globe Staff, 06/19/98      y the time the next basketball season
>starts, The Cooz will be (gulp) 70.   Is this possible?   ''You know the
>old cliche, `You're only as old as you feel,''' says Bob Cousy, who will be
>70 Aug. 9. ''It's true. I went back to Holy Cross for a reunion this year,
>and although it's 48 years later, I said, `Didn't we just do this?' I thank
>God for a lot of things, and general good health is one of them. I have my
>aches and pains, sure, but it  is hard to believe I'm creeping up on 70.
>Someone could say, `You turning 50?' and I'd say, `Of course.'''  Robert
>Joseph Cousy, without whom there would have been no Boston Celtics for Bill
>Russell to lead in the direction of those 11 championships, played his
>final game as a Celtic on April 24, 1963. He had sprained an ankle during
>the game, but he returned with his team in trouble against a good Lakers
>team. With The Cooz's firm hand on the tiller, the Celtics nailed down
>championship No. 6 that night in the Los Angeles Sports Arena.   Cousy
>played seven years with Russell. He played one with John Havlicek, who once
>told me that as a rookie, ''all I did was run around and make layups on
>passes from Cousy.'' He never played with Dave Cowens, Larry Bird, or
>Antoine Walker. In the eyes of young fans, he is a name from the musty
>past.   He played for the Boston Celtics, which means that his No. 14 is
>just one of 18 retired players' numerals. So many great players have
>performed for this team that it is understandable if the names and
>achievements all sort of run together after a while. It is hard now to
>conjure up the circumstance of the early '50s, when the Celtics had no
>cachet in this town and the only reason most people went to see the team
>play was the electrifying and magnetic presence of the game's best passer,
>ballhandler, and thinker. Absent Cousy, the Celtics would have quite
>literally ceased to exist.   Along with George Mikan, he  was the NBA to
>the first generation of professional basketball fans. This is why among
>People of a Certain Age, Bob Cousy remains an airport traffic stopper. Bob
>Cousy is one of the great American sports heroes of the century.   Much
>like his old coach, Red Auerbach, The Cooz respects the past but does not
>wallow in it. He is, without question, more knowledgeable about the modern
>NBA than any of his contemporaries because he has left it only once in the
>35 years since his retirement, that being his six-year stint as coach at
>Boston College (117-37). He coached the Cincinnati Royals from 1969 through
>the 23d game of the 1973-74 season, and before that campaign was over, he
>began a local broadcast career that continues to this day.   He could have
>taken what he would call ''the path of least resistance.'' He could have
>been simply Bob Cousy and acted as a pontificator. That would have been
>more than enough to make a go of it in this town. But he never even
>considered doing that.   As anyone who has covered the Celtics in the last
>quarter-century knows, The Cooz still does his homework. He goes to home
>games in order to look over opponents he'll be discussing in his road
>telecasts. He keeps voluminous files on every team. He is always on top of
>the new talent. He doesn't settle for being a raconteur. He is always
>current. The next night he mails in a performance will be the first.   We
>can naturally assume he'll be back in the headset for another few years. I
>mean, he  is Bob Cousy, is he not?   ''Well, I'd like to come back, of
>course,'' says Cousy. ''But I'm not certain. The Channel 38 contract is
>completed, and nothing has been settled for next year. I spoke with Paul
>Gaston a month or so ago, and he said, `As far as I'm concerned, you'll
>always have a job with us,' but nothing has been nailed down yet. I've
>spent 37 of the last 48 years in association with the Celtics, and I'd
>definitely like to keep doing it for a few more years.''  He has played
>against, played for, or witnessed every great team the NBA has had to offer
>in the past five decades, which makes him the ideal person to discuss the
>historic placement of the Chicago Bulls.   ''I have never disputed the fact
>that the modern athlete is bigger, faster, and stronger than they were in
>my day,'' Cousy says. ''To my knowledge, the only old-timers who
>continually challenge the idea that their game is better today is baseball
>players, and I'm just not qualified to discuss that.''  As for Michael
>Jordan, well, what do you think?   ''I agree with the world that Michael
>Jordan is the best thing we've seen on the basketball court since Naismith
>invented the game,'' Cousy asserts.   But The Cooz will not sign on to the
>proclamation that the Bulls are the greatest thing ever to come along or
>that their six titles in eight years is an equivalent achievement to the
>Celtics' 11 championships in 13 seasons from 1957-69.   ''I'd like to make
>three points,'' Cousy begins. ''One, whether the talent of the time was
>just as good is irrelevant to this discussion. I believe the Celtics'
>accomplishment of 11 in 13 years was more difficult because the talent was
>not spread out the way it is today. They started out in an eight-team
>league and ended in a 14-team league. It was much more difficult to
>dominate.   ''Secondly, I was once on a team that had eight Hall of Famers.
>Michael Jordan will have played with one - Scottie Pippen.''  It's true.
>The 1962-63 Celtics included Russell, Cousy, Tom Heinsohn, Havlicek, Frank
>Ramsey, Sam Jones, K.C. Jones, and an end-of-career Clyde Lovellette, all
>of whom have been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.   But the one
>I really like is The Cooz's final insight.   ''I still believe the key
>positions in basketball are center and point guard, and this Chicago team
>doesn't have either,'' he points out. ''The Bulls consist of Jordan,
>Pippen, and 10 role players. If any of the rest of them were placed on
>other teams and told they had to score 20 points or do some other things,
>they would not be able to do it.''  Cousy believes he has seen several
>better teams, including the '66-67 76ers, the '71-72 Lakers, and both the
>great Celtics and Lakers teams of the '80s. ''I am on the Michael Jordan
>bandwagon,'' he says. ''But I'm not on the Luc Longley and Bill Wennington
>bandwagons. The Bulls are an excellent team and they would give any of the
>other great ones a go, but they are simply not the best ever.''  That's  my
>expert witness.   Who's yours?       This story ran on page E06 of the
>Boston Globe on 06/19/98. 
>